Derby Fire
2006200,876 acresMontana
The Derby Fire burned 200,876 acres, about 314 square miles, across 2 counties. It began on August 22, 2006.
Watch how it happenedDerby Fire · 2006
How it happened
Watch it burn in the order satellites saw it, coloured by how severely each place burned.
How severely it burned
Burn severity inside the final perimeter, classified from Landsat images taken before and after the fire.
| Severity | Share | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| Highmost vegetation consumed, soils altered | 20% | 40,450 |
| Moderatemixed: many trees killed, some survive | 18% | 36,248 |
| Lowsurface fire, most trees survive | 17% | 34,641 |
| Unburned to lowislands inside the perimeter, little change | 34% | 69,007 |
| Increased greennessvegetation greener after the fire than before | 10% | 20,168 |
| Not mappedcloud, shadow or water in the satellite images | 0.2% | 362 |
20% of the area inside the perimeter burned at high severity, about 40,450 acres; 38% burned at moderate or high severity.
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (U.S. Geological Survey and USDA Forest Service). Classes come from the change in a Landsat burn index (dNBR) between images before and after the fire; acres are each class’s share of the fire’s mapped area.
Where it burned
Acres inside each county, measured from the satellite-mapped perimeter.
| Sweet Grass County | MT | 138,992 |
| Stillwater County | MT | 61,999 |
Other large fires in Montana in 2006
- Pine Ridge Complex103,158 acres
- Bundy Railroad Fire91,623 acres
- Lost Creek (Black Pulaski Complex) Fire38,561 acres
- Buffalo Creek Fire37,611 acres
- Soda Creek (Black Pulaski Complex) Fire33,777 acres
- Red Eagle Fire32,560 acres
- Horton Fire25,091 acres
Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity (USGS and U.S. Forest Service). Type recorded: Wildfire.